The Premier of the Province of KwaZulu-Natal Willies Mchunu has announced that the Provincial Planning Commissioner Professor Ronald Green-Thompson has been assigned to turn around the situation in the Department of Health.

Addressing a three-day Provincial Executive Council Lekgotla in Mayville, Durban that is assessing and reviewing government’s key service delivery programmes, Premier Mchunu said Prof Green-Thompson, who is the former head of department, was highly qualified to ensure a sustained provision of quality healthcare in all public health institutions.

Prof Green-Thompson is a seasoned administrator who once served in the Task Team that was appointed by the national Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi. This task team identified and addressed challenges faced by public health institutions in different parts of the country.

The minister, Premier and Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo met last week to discuss challenges faced by the department of health in the province.

We have agreed as the council that Prof Green-Thompson will focus on ensuring solid health and financial management to improve health outcomes. He will work with senior management and the team from treasury that was assigned to deal with delays associated with the procurement of medical equipment including other medical goods and services required to provide quality patient care in various hospitals.

In addition, we have agreed that the improvement of health outcomes will not be achieved without investment in infrastructure. Therefore, Prof Green-Thompson and the management team will accelerate interventions focusing on the reconstruction of dilapidated hospitals and building of new hospitals and clinics. KZN government as announced early this year has set aside R1, 4 billion for this work.

We expect Prof Green-Thompson to strengthen human resource management including recruitment processes to deal with the shortage of health professionals and clinicians in particular.

Critically, we have agreed that as part of ensuring quality of care, we need to pay urgent attention to cleanliness and courteous services to the patients. We have also set targets in terms of ensuring the availability of medication and the reduction of patient waiting times.